The Terrible and Wasteful History of Drug Enforcement Bureaucracy In the US (Warning: Its Pretty Ugly)

I'll be honest, I had no idea how bad it was until I started this research. I knew how bad government is with its layers of bureaucracy and trillions of dollars in waste, but this surprised me a little bit. In this article, I did my best to lay out in chronological order of creation the agencies that were created under the US government that are dedicated to drug enforcement, an already immoral cause. After you are finished reading, it should be no surprise that the total bill for the last 40 years of drug enforcement is over $1 trillion (source). Without further ado, let's get started.

It started in 1930, when the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) was established under the Department of the Treasury by an act of Congress. Simple enough. Its wrong, but so far its easy to follow.

Then, the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control (BDAC) was established as part of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1966. (The FDA was established in 1906 and is itself a cluster of bureaucracies with its own terrible totalitarian history.)

(Not my photo, source.)

The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) was established 1968 under the Department of Justice (DOJ). This combined the FBN and the BDAC.

(Not my photo, source.)

The Office of National Narcotics Intelligence (ONNI) was established in 1972 under the DOJ by order of President Nixon.

This is where it maybe gets a little shady. The Narcotics Advance Research Management Team was established under the Executive Office of the President. When? For what purpose? I honestly cannot answer either of those questions based on the research I have done. If anyone has any info and can give LINKS TO SOURCES on this agency, please let me know.

The Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (ODALE) was established in 1972 by President Nixon. Its purpose was to assist local government with drug enforcement.

Now, perhaps the one we all know best. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was established in 1973 under the DOJ. This was a result of Reorganization Plan No. 2, a proposal by President Nixon that was passed by Congress. It merged the ONNI, ODALE, and BNDD into one agency. Some US Customs agents tagged along to join the newly created DEA during this bureaucratic merger.

(Not my photo, source.)

The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) was established by the National Narcotics Leadership Act of 1988. Since 1988, the director of the ONDCP is also the Drug Czar. President Clinton raised the Drug Czar to cabinet level status in 1993.

(Not my photo, source.)

Now, I imagine most people reading this are in agreement that nobody should control what I can put into my body. I own myself (self-ownership) so I choose what I ingest. Even if you disagree with that principle, you cannot possibly say that the War on Drugs has worked or was worth it. Even if you look at just this single aspect of it, the bureaucracy cluster f--k of agencies, it is apparent that the low ball estimate of $1 trillion dollars in money spent was a complete and utter WASTE. And we haven't even touched on the mass incarceration or the fueling of violent black market groups.